overstaying a tourist visa

Gator says on Sep 21, 2005, 19:34:

Sorry to Tell You This.... but unless you go "underground" you only get six months in a one-year period-not a calendar year-no exceptions. You will not be " here semi-illegally after october 13th" you will be illegal. I recommend you not get caught if you break Columbia's immigration laws. BTY you will not be allowed to reenter on a tourist visa until the new time period expires.

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

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BAQ says on Sep 21, 2005, 19:50:

Jesse Man, you are in COLOMBIA, NOT AMERICA. They will put your ass in jail if you get caught. Get caught on the street with NO I.D. or carrying an expired visa in your passport and you WILL go to jail so they can determine your "Status".

I have seen it happen here in Barranquilla MANY TIMES. Police show up, start patting people down and checking ID's (Random stop and search). NO ID, into the police van you go and off to the jail house until you can prove to them who you are. And a COLOMBIAN JAIL is NOT where you want to find yourself !

My advice, have yourself on a plane by October 13th.

Semper Fidelis !

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vladimiro says on Sep 21, 2005, 19:53:

What is strange about Colombia is that Colombian immigration won't let you *leave* the country if you were there illegally. They check your passport when you are leaving the country and if you overstayed your visa you'll have to cancel your flight, go to DAS and resolve your status (pay a fine, and supply some paperwork) before they'll let you leave.

If I were you I would call DAS, or go down there, and ask them what the fine is for overstaying you visa, and pay it before you leave.

Bogota airport is more lax about checking passports from my experience. But in Medellin there are two guys that check your passport out very carefully. They would not let me board my flight once for immigration violations I knew nothing about. When I went to copa airlines office to change my ticket to a later date, there was another poor guy that lost his ticket to London for the same reason.

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BAQ says on Sep 21, 2005, 21:46:

ya can't do that Ya can't pre-pay your fine unless DAS has changed the rules and I don;t think they have

Semper Fidelis !

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BAQ says on Sep 21, 2005, 21:46:

ya can't do that Ya can't pre-pay your fine unless DAS has changed the rules and I don;t think they have

Semper Fidelis !

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aztec says on Sep 22, 2005, 03:50:

NO ID, into the police van you go and off to the jail house unti Had a North American friend picked up in Cali because he did not have ID on him. He remained in jail until the next morning when his girlfriend was able to get his PASSPORT to him.

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ronald1168 says on Sep 22, 2005, 06:37:

Overstay of Colombian Visa I never bothered to extend my Tourist Visa with the DAS and i never had any problems.
On leaving Colombia i had to pay a fine which was about 300,000 COP.

However i never stayed longer then 6 months and only overstayed with about a month. I think if you stay longer then 6 months you might have a problem because Colombian immigration do not allow tourist visits of over 180 days per year. Going to Ecuador and back won't resolve the issue.

On the other side do not believe that nonsense of Colombian DAS putting you in Jail for this. My Colombian wife used to be a D.A.S. immigration agent and she cannot recall one case of a foreigner detained for overstaying a Visa. Colombian Authorities are normally very relaxed with foreign nationals.






Ronald Donders
London
ronald at donders.co.uk

ronald@donders.co.uk

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Gator says on Sep 22, 2005, 08:05:

They Will NOT.... put you in jail but DAS WILL deny you permission to board the aircraft. You MUST get this fixed before you are ready to leave. The time to head to the DAS office is not three hours before you leave.

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

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sydneygirl says on Sep 22, 2005, 09:50:

from personal experience Hey Jesse,

Last year I was given wrong information by an english speaking( I use that term very loosely) information giver at the immigration office in Bogota not DAS the other place.

He said that if i left the country at the time my tourist visa expired I could re-enter on a new tourist visa striaght away. SO i rock up to Bogota airport after spending thousands going to Miami for 6 days and get told I cannot enter.That its a max 6 months per año and mine is used up.

Eventually after many tears from me, and a bit of laughing from them,and a temper tantrum from mi novio they gave me a 5 day visa to go and have a chat with DAS. Up stairs at DAS in Bogota, my boyfriend and i spoke with a man who told me to come back a week before i was leaving and pay a fine. Which I did and they put a slip in my passport and I was able to leave the country. no worries. I think we paid about 285.000 and I overstayed it 30 days or so.(we got a very good price though)

They did warn me not to get into any trouble. There was an unfortunate american woman who had an argument with a police man and also had no visa, sitting there and they pointed at her as the example of what not to be.

What they do not tell you is that they take the time that you overstayed off your next tourist visa, so i only have 5 months this time. I am now flustering to get some paperwork from new Zealand that I thought i had heaps of time to arrange because last time I went to renew my touist visa they told me I only have 30 days left because I overstayed last time. I dont want to overstay again because I want to apply for a different visa and everything has to be in order for that to happen.

So dont pay heed to the drama queens above!!! Just do your homework. Go to DAS before your current visa expires, head straight up stairs, ignoring the people downstairs, who will give you the dooms day talk.
Make a contact upstairs(keep the name and direct phone number for future references), get an idea of what its going to cost you, make a plan to return and talk to the same person to pay the fine when its time for you to leave.
And good-luck!

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BAQ says on Sep 22, 2005, 10:14:

I am not talking about DAS, am talking about the POLICE SYdneygirl, what you and I are talking about are two different things. It is not "Drama". I agree IF YOU GO TO DAS you can get something worked out but that is NOT what the origional poster said. He DID NOT SAY HE WAS GOING TO DAS, he said he was just going to "Overstay". Overstaying and showing up at DAS on YOUR TIME TABLE is totally different than getting STOPPED ON THE STREET by the police and not being able to produce any proper ID or a valid passport/visa.

When I say "Go to jail", I am talking about what Aztec pointed out. Honestly, I have seen them do it here in Barranquilla, and I am talking about Colombians and NON Colombians. Maybe other cities have a different policy regarding inforcement, but in this city, they have gotten really tough. Usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

It is common for 5-10 police to show up on the street, stop EVERYONE in the area who is walking and do searches. They are looking for guns and drugs. They also want some ID, if you can;t produce a Colombian Govt ID or a passport, they take you to the police station (Jail) where you are kept until someone arrives with your ID.

Also, in the last 6 months, they have dramatically stepped up check points where they are stopping cars, trucks and motorcycles, checking for guns, drugs, vehicle registrations and insurance. Again, NO ID, they are impounding vehicles and taking the drivers and any passangers with no ID to jail until they can produce some valid ID.

I am only speaking about BARRANQUILLA since that is where i live. I can;t speak about the rest of the cities with any degree if accuracy since I don;t live there.

Being a GRINGO, I have been singled out by the police before, twice in the past year just for walking down the street. I THINK it is because of the drug problem, the police wanting the see WHY a gringo is in barranquilla.

Again, I can only speak from personal experience and from what I have seen with my own two eyes on the streets of Barranquilla.

Just a thought.

Semper Fidelis !

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Gator says on Sep 22, 2005, 11:35:

Drama Queen My Ass!!!!!!!!!! And speaking of drama queens, I offer the following from you, "Eventually after many tears from me, and a bit of laughing from them,and a temper tantrum from mi novio....

"Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" .

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